{"id":74,"date":"2021-10-30T19:32:50","date_gmt":"2021-10-30T19:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.csusm.edu\/cultureclash\/?page_id=74"},"modified":"2023-05-12T00:29:19","modified_gmt":"2023-05-12T00:29:19","slug":"introduction","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wp.csusm.edu\/cultureclash\/introduction\/","title":{"rendered":"Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"

This digital history project is designed to present original historical analysis and also to document the history of the Chicano comedy troupe, Culture Clash<\/span>. Founded in the late 20th century, Culture Clash produced many performances that are not readily accessible in digital format. Culture Clash was founded in the Mission District of San Francisco on May 5, 1985, including three members: Richard Montoya, Herbert Sig\u00fcenza, and Ric Salinas<\/span>. Each member brought their own unique personality and skills to the troupe. Salinas was a radio DJ. Sig\u00fcenza had been in theater. Montoya had a family connection with the Chicano Movement. This comedic trio performed a kind of sketch comedy that was not simply physical comedy reminiscent of the Three Stooges but something more profound. Social criticism and engagement with real-world issues was a key feature of their performance.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Sig\u00fcenza and other members of Culture Clash <\/span>follow <\/span>a rich tradition of Chicano theater, tracing back to Luis Valdez and Teatro Campesi\u00f1o.<\/span> Sig\u00fcenza often cites Valdez and the Teatro as influential to him and the troupe. Both Luis Valdez and Sig\u00fcenza have cited the San Francisco Mime troupe as an influence on their style. The San Francisco Mime Troupe is a <\/span>theater <\/span>collective founded by R.G. Davis <\/span>in 1959<\/span>, <\/span>that practices mime not in the sense of pantomime, but rather in the classical sense of mimicry, satirizing people and current social circumstances in the name of justice. It <\/span>has <\/span>had a big <\/span>influence<\/span> on radical theater in California. <\/span>In his dissertation,\u00a0 <\/span>From La Carpa to the Classroom: The Chicano Theatre Movement and Actor Training in the United States<\/span><\/i>, Dennis Sloan asserts that Valdez \u201cfound use in the mime troupe\u2019s technique.\u201d<\/span> Sig\u00fcenza cited their use of comedy and satire to discuss social issues significant to him.<\/span> This study will show that the members of Culture Clash brought together their individual identities as Chicanos or Latinos, and then created an innovative expression of theatrical performance rooted in their social values and also in their sense of Latin-ness, or <\/span>Latinidad<\/span><\/i>. As will be discussed below,<\/span> Latinidad<\/span><\/i> is a useful concept to represent and not oversimplify the intersecting, diverse identities claimed by people of Latin American descent in the U.S. The concept is key for this study because while the members of Culture Clash publicly claim Chicano identity, they each have different family experiences and positionality within the broader Latin American-descendant community.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The purpose of this original digital archive is to create an accessible starting point for anyone who is interested in learning about Culture Clash\u2019s work in the 1990s. A notable feature of this digital archive is the ephemera it presents for the first time. This includes material that was provided to this author by some of the members of Culture Clash. Additionally, important material is included from the Special Collections and Archives in California State University Northridge.<\/span> Another unique feature of this digital archive is the presentation of original oral histories conducted by this author with two of the members of Culture Clash. Further, the archive presents historical analysis of a selection of Culture Clash\u2019s work. Content analysis will be the primary method used to analyze selected performances. This method situates the performances in their historical context. This study seeks to document this counter-hegemonic representation as successful in that historical moment.<\/span><\/p>\n

David Gumaro Garc\u00eda\u2019s Ph.D. dissertation, \u201cThe Evolution of a Critical Race Theater: Culture Clash and Chicana\/o Performance Art, 1965-2005,\u201d and Sean Carrillo\u2019s oral history of the avant garde group Asco, have informed my approach.<\/span> It is fundamentally important to consider the Culture Clash performances in their historical context. The 1980s or early 90s was a significant period where different groups interpreted the Latinx immigrant experience in the United States differently. Dorinne Kondo in her article \u201c(Re)Visions of Race: Contemporary Race Theory and the Cultural Politics of Racial Crossover in Documentary Theatre,\u201d analyzes Culture Clash performances through the lens of anthropology.<\/span> \u201cTheir pointed political choices and the artists’ cross-racial, cross-gender performances offer a way to rethink enduring political inequities and the possibilities for political alliance and social justice for minorities subjects.\u201d <\/span>Kondo highlights the notion of Culture Clash\u2019s\u00a0 artistic decisions being properly executed thus bringing awareness to the issue but also challenge popular myths deemed to be true. Culture Clash\u2019s thoughtful research and writing lead to a performance that is thought-provoking and challenges racial myths. Whether through live performance or television broadcasts, the trio used their own brand of sketch comedy to challenge the hegemonic society of the 90s. They challenged society with performances rooted in <\/span>Latinidad, <\/span><\/i>which infused their comedy with subject matter that both entertained and challenged viewers. The following sections will examine Culture Clash\u2019s use of sketch comedy to highlight and bring awareness to Latinx issues as they existed in the 90\u2019s. Oral history testimonies of two of the three members will be analyzed to see how each member brings their own <\/span>Latinidad<\/span><\/i> to Culture Clash and their respective projects.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At this point, it is important to clarify the terminology that will be used in this study to refer to the heterogenous people who claimed or were labeled with ethnic, national, or political terms such as Hispanic, Chicano, Latino, Latina, and Latinx.\u00a0 In the early decades of the new millennium, the English language neologism \u201cLatinx\u201d emerged to describe members of these ethnic groups in a gender-neutral way.\u00a0 The term is being used and debated in the present day. <\/span>Readers will find all of these terms in this study, because it is important to maintain the historical accuracy of the performance or testimony. Latin America encompasses a vast amount of people and land. It would be nearly impossible to describe each individual country. <\/span>Latinidad <\/span><\/i>will be a key concept in this thesis.<\/span> Latinidad <\/span><\/i>refers to identity with the diverse and shared social and cultural aspects rooted in the region of Latin America . Without losing the individuality of their respective nation, <\/span>Latinidad<\/span><\/i> reveals moments where various Latinx converge and diverge.<\/span>By portraying the multi-faceted Latinx experience through comedy and satire,\u00a0 Culture Clash cleverly and intentionally inscribes <\/span>Latinidad <\/span><\/i>into<\/span> the landscape of American culture<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This digital history project is designed to present original historical analysis and also to document the history of the Chicano comedy troupe, Culture Clash. Founded in the late 20th century, Culture Clash produced many performances that are not readily accessible in digital format. Culture Clash was founded in the Mission District of San Francisco on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-74","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.csusm.edu\/cultureclash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/74","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.csusm.edu\/cultureclash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.csusm.edu\/cultureclash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.csusm.edu\/cultureclash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.csusm.edu\/cultureclash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.csusm.edu\/cultureclash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/74\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.csusm.edu\/cultureclash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}